Silver Adept (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silveradept) wrote2006-09-09 11:28 pm
silveradept) wrote2006-09-09 11:28 pm
Saturday spent in idleness
Sunday likely will be spent with JAMS, as there's a meeting there. Although I may come back early if ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
welah gets into town at a reasonable hour. Or I'll do something one way or another or whatever. I still need to poke the library, most likely, and see if the book I need to read for Tuesday is on reserve so that I can read the requisite chapters. In any case, it's schooltime again and the assignments are already on their way, really. Next week should be spent in a blood-frenzy of doing work and deciding whether or not to drop any classes. I don't think I will, though, unless the one class I have yet to experience is unbearable.
Been sitting on this tidbit for a bit because I keep forgetting to put it in - on Thursday, those manning the table of the gaming convention were called "shameful beasts" (the "beasts" part I know is right, the adjective in front is a little fuzzy) because someone inquired about what Warhammer was, and upon being told it was a miniatures wargame, launched into a tirade about how we shouldn't be actively promoting war, as it was bad, and that war was causing all these problems. When she walked past us again, she uttered the "shameful beasts" remark again. We were, to put it accurately, nonplussed yet amused. Miniatures gamers are going to be the first in line to promote the U.S.'s next war and to sign up to fight in it, because they've been brainwashed into believing war is good through playing miniatures. Riiight. That's almost on par with the "Dungeons and Dragons is a front for sex, drugs, rock and roll, and SATAN!" belief.
Today, well, I got to see another piece of history... specifically, the weather did not hold for the football game, and thus, for the first time in stadium history, there was a rain delay. In which, I got soaked. Took the rest of the game to dry out, really. Did take some pictures, though. Maybe when I get ambitious, I'll actually fiddle with the pictures I took and upload/offload them.
Speaking of schooling, a top ten list of no-sympathy lines from the professor. All things that are quite important for both the undergrads and the grad students to learn.
Survivor goes racially-oriented. This is probably not an improvement in race relations, and if it follows the reality-TV style to it, the stereotypes won't really be challenged that much... unless it makes good ratings to do so.
Inflammatory language written into a resolution in Canada, at least according to this particular opinion, "Sorry won't cut it". Asking for a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the crafters point out, quite rightly, then when the enemy is indistinguishable from ordinary citizenry, soldiers act like terrorists themselves, destroying lives and communities. Every mistake made where the citizens are citizens and not terrorists only gives the opposition more credibility. Not that changing the minds of the populace is any easier. Mrrk. Why can't we all just get along? (Anyone who claims stuff about "They hate our freedoms" or other neoconservative fearfear bullshit will be sent out the airlock without an EVA suit.) Oh, yeah, and it's finally confirmed that al-Qaeda and Saddam had nothing to do with each other. In fact, Saddam considered al-Qaeda a threat. So now that we know we've been sold a war on false pretenses, and that our continued presence is based on false pretenses, why don't we stop the carnage and killing, own up to our mistakes, and pay for the repairs rather that the reapers?
Don't trust everything you read, even in the mainstream news, apparently. A pollster has pleaded guilty to making up poll numbers. So what you saw was not necessarily an accurate representation of the American people. Maybe that 30-something percent of people who still approve of the Administration will evaporate as a false statistic, too.
I was linked to a subpage of this organization as another group that has misconceptions about Wicca and most nontraditional religions. And then, well, I went to the homepage to try and suss out if there was some sort of connection between the prominently-displayed website name and the page that rendered. (Be forewarned, very tiny print and obnoxious frames at this site.) The organization itself is named StolenChildren.net, and is apparently dedicated to stopping "non-American parental abduction", where, as I would guess, as part of a divorce proceeding or some legal action, custody is given to the parent that does not reside in the United States, and the children are sent to the foreign country. This is the original link, with the offensive definition of Wicca, apparently started so that Gerald Gardner could justify paedophilia and child sexual abuse. It makes Gardner a Satanist and his work based largely on Crowley. That was a bit of a WTF by itself. As I've noted, though, trying to find the larger context only increases the WTF factor. Some of the links themselves seem to make no sense, either, for a site ostensibly focusing on this "kidnapping" act. I'm trying to see if there's any way I can trace this back to an organization name, and I'm coming up with a blank, really.
In any case, it looks like there's some sort of case going on involving a pair of children and a disputed custody ruling, and then there's also a multitude of misinformation about other various subjects, as if the website creators just wanted to put their opinions on the web along with their case plea. It's missing children mixed with some sort of (at a guess, even though it's never openly stated) some sort of tract against a random set of targets. I'd say it follows a loose nationalist or fundamentalist Christian target distribution, but I'm just puzzled. Maybe someone else can make better sense out of this?
I'm going to bed, then. Tomorrow, I'll try to puzzle out what I want to do about JAMS meetings, shoppings, people moving back in, readings, and other such important stuff.
welah gets into town at a reasonable hour. Or I'll do something one way or another or whatever. I still need to poke the library, most likely, and see if the book I need to read for Tuesday is on reserve so that I can read the requisite chapters. In any case, it's schooltime again and the assignments are already on their way, really. Next week should be spent in a blood-frenzy of doing work and deciding whether or not to drop any classes. I don't think I will, though, unless the one class I have yet to experience is unbearable. Been sitting on this tidbit for a bit because I keep forgetting to put it in - on Thursday, those manning the table of the gaming convention were called "shameful beasts" (the "beasts" part I know is right, the adjective in front is a little fuzzy) because someone inquired about what Warhammer was, and upon being told it was a miniatures wargame, launched into a tirade about how we shouldn't be actively promoting war, as it was bad, and that war was causing all these problems. When she walked past us again, she uttered the "shameful beasts" remark again. We were, to put it accurately, nonplussed yet amused. Miniatures gamers are going to be the first in line to promote the U.S.'s next war and to sign up to fight in it, because they've been brainwashed into believing war is good through playing miniatures. Riiight. That's almost on par with the "Dungeons and Dragons is a front for sex, drugs, rock and roll, and SATAN!" belief.
Today, well, I got to see another piece of history... specifically, the weather did not hold for the football game, and thus, for the first time in stadium history, there was a rain delay. In which, I got soaked. Took the rest of the game to dry out, really. Did take some pictures, though. Maybe when I get ambitious, I'll actually fiddle with the pictures I took and upload/offload them.
Speaking of schooling, a top ten list of no-sympathy lines from the professor. All things that are quite important for both the undergrads and the grad students to learn.
Survivor goes racially-oriented. This is probably not an improvement in race relations, and if it follows the reality-TV style to it, the stereotypes won't really be challenged that much... unless it makes good ratings to do so.
Inflammatory language written into a resolution in Canada, at least according to this particular opinion, "Sorry won't cut it". Asking for a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the crafters point out, quite rightly, then when the enemy is indistinguishable from ordinary citizenry, soldiers act like terrorists themselves, destroying lives and communities. Every mistake made where the citizens are citizens and not terrorists only gives the opposition more credibility. Not that changing the minds of the populace is any easier. Mrrk. Why can't we all just get along? (Anyone who claims stuff about "They hate our freedoms" or other neoconservative fearfear bullshit will be sent out the airlock without an EVA suit.) Oh, yeah, and it's finally confirmed that al-Qaeda and Saddam had nothing to do with each other. In fact, Saddam considered al-Qaeda a threat. So now that we know we've been sold a war on false pretenses, and that our continued presence is based on false pretenses, why don't we stop the carnage and killing, own up to our mistakes, and pay for the repairs rather that the reapers?
Don't trust everything you read, even in the mainstream news, apparently. A pollster has pleaded guilty to making up poll numbers. So what you saw was not necessarily an accurate representation of the American people. Maybe that 30-something percent of people who still approve of the Administration will evaporate as a false statistic, too.
I was linked to a subpage of this organization as another group that has misconceptions about Wicca and most nontraditional religions. And then, well, I went to the homepage to try and suss out if there was some sort of connection between the prominently-displayed website name and the page that rendered. (Be forewarned, very tiny print and obnoxious frames at this site.) The organization itself is named StolenChildren.net, and is apparently dedicated to stopping "non-American parental abduction", where, as I would guess, as part of a divorce proceeding or some legal action, custody is given to the parent that does not reside in the United States, and the children are sent to the foreign country. This is the original link, with the offensive definition of Wicca, apparently started so that Gerald Gardner could justify paedophilia and child sexual abuse. It makes Gardner a Satanist and his work based largely on Crowley. That was a bit of a WTF by itself. As I've noted, though, trying to find the larger context only increases the WTF factor. Some of the links themselves seem to make no sense, either, for a site ostensibly focusing on this "kidnapping" act. I'm trying to see if there's any way I can trace this back to an organization name, and I'm coming up with a blank, really.
In any case, it looks like there's some sort of case going on involving a pair of children and a disputed custody ruling, and then there's also a multitude of misinformation about other various subjects, as if the website creators just wanted to put their opinions on the web along with their case plea. It's missing children mixed with some sort of (at a guess, even though it's never openly stated) some sort of tract against a random set of targets. I'd say it follows a loose nationalist or fundamentalist Christian target distribution, but I'm just puzzled. Maybe someone else can make better sense out of this?
I'm going to bed, then. Tomorrow, I'll try to puzzle out what I want to do about JAMS meetings, shoppings, people moving back in, readings, and other such important stuff.
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Anyway. I'll reply to the rest later.
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I was recently linked to your list of "top ten no sympathy lines", and I must take issue with the contention that the only reason to fail an exam is a failing of the intellectual abilities tested by the exam (well, that, or just not taking the exam). Sometimes, abilities which have never been considered or mentioned as useful come into play. Consider this, a true story from when I was in college:
I was once in a history class where the exams were essay questions. I did not know it at the time (the requirement was listed neither in the syllabus nor on the exam sheet), but apparently the professor was expecting four to five bluebook pages worth of essay for each question (there were three of them, for a three hour exam). I can only hand-write about a page and a half (still on bluebook measurements here) of material in an hour (compared to somewhere between ten and fifty times that much when typing), and structured my essays accordingly. Naturally I failed the first exam, with a comment of "is that all you have to say?" After explaining - and demonstrating - my 'weakness' in hand writing, the professor was incredulous that it had never been a problem in the past. Of course it hadn't: I had never before been in a situation where hand-writing a page and a half in an hour was less than acceptable. I even got a 660 on the writing SAT II with that speed, which was more than I was expecting. No amount of argument and offers to write a full-length essay off the cuff at one of the history department's lab computers on any subject he chose seemed to sway him, either.
Is it really fair to not announce a requirement that a student might reasonably have a problem with until /after/ the event? It doesn't work that way in the real world: if you hire me to do something for you and neglect to tell me one of your vital requirements, then you get it without that requirement fulfilled and I still get paid. Why should I fail a course for lack of an ability that, for my entire life up to and including that course, I had no reason to believe I would ever need?
Vorn
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I had to /train/ for it, doing wrist and thumb exercises and practising my penmanship. (That said, on the SAT II writing, that skill was invaluable -- got the essays done in 10 minutes -- and that was writing tiny to get a full argument, with antithesis across.)
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Vorn
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Yarha, Small Fonts are the Sign of an Unsound Mind or an Intent to Deceive
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Silver, Ready to throw a Proper Coding Book at them
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It just seems to be a very unorganized website in general. I don't even know what the "definitions" have to do with anything. I also appreciated the links on mother-daughter incest, but yet NOTHING for father-son or father-daughter, or even mother-son relationships. That was really what lead me to believe that it was more of a "I'm angry at my kid's mom so I'm going to make this website" instead of being a meaningful website.
Falsifying survey results - Unfortunitly, this happens with a LOT of the surveying businesses. A lot of the companies consider it ok to "tweak" the data before the present the results by dropping the lowest response, changing a M to an F to meet the quota, etc. But out and out fabricating results? Ridiculous and so wrong on so many levels.
Hmm. So saddam and bin laden aren't in cahoots with each other? So, can the insanity stop now? Please?
Idon't agree with all of what the professor said. I really think there are people out there who are just bad at taking tests, but are smart in other areas. Heck, there are some people who are excellent at multiple choice, but sucky at essays, and vice versa.
And now I'm confusing myself with what links i have open that are from you and which are from other peopel...oi.